Category: Beloved Brands in the Market

For years, the Starbucks red cup has been a symbol that Christmas is coming. It is completely irrational, but then again isn’t everything about Starbucks irrational.

When you reach the Beloved stage like Starbucks, it becomes all about the experience and the magical moments you can create. While you can continue to attack yourself before others can attack you, it’s also about maintaining the love by creating a bit of magic to surprise and delight your most loyal consumers. For a brand that taps into routine, having a regular set of drinks and desserts around Christmas gives the consumers some festive favorites to liven up the routine a little bit. Being a life ritual each and every day gets even bigger when you become a tradition each Christmas. For 10 years, Starbucks has used red cups to create excitement with consumers. Here’s a quote from the head of brand in 2013.

Terry Davenport, Senior Vice President, Global Brand, said in 2013 that “When the cups turn red at Starbucks, that’s one of the first cues that the holidays are upon us. The emotional connection that our store partners (employees) have when they open that first box of the red cups and start using them that first day, and the emotional connection they see from their customers, that’s what we strive for. They see that surprise and excitement: ‘Oh, the red cups are at Starbucks!”

If you have been into a Starbucks during the Christmas period, you will certainly feel the magic of the holiday season. Every Starbucks feels well-decorated but never over stated. You can smell peppermint and ginger as soon as you walk in. If you want to add some flavor to your regular Latte, you can go for a Caramel Brûlé, Eggnog or Peppermint. And if you want to try one of the Christmas deserts, there’s Gingerbread loafs, Frosted Snowman cookies or the Cranberry Bliss Bar. Better yet, have you had one of those incredible Peppermint Brownie Cake Pops?

More impressively, according to Starbucks, “within the first 48 hours of red Starbucks cups launching in 2014, a photo of a Starbucks holiday cup was shared on Instagram every 14 seconds.” The event is so popular and anticipated, it has even given rise to countdown clocks. Sure it’s crazy, but it’s crazy fun. Kinda like Santa Claus, just crazy fun.

And then Starbucks got really dumb for a moment in 2015

Starbucks decided to launch a plain red cup, to ensure everyone felt included in the festivities. Plain red without any a pattern or design. There are no snowflakes, stars, or snowmen. And people were pissed. And social media screamed at the brand. This was seen by the public as one more “politically correct” thing in their lives. People understand not everyone is Christian, but can’t you just put a snowflake on the damn coffee cup.

In a world of social media, things can unravel very quickly. Within days of the launch last year, the issue began to dominate the headlines. One Youtube video blasting Starbucks generated 15 million views within days, with 500,000 people shared it. The red cup issue became one of the top stories in the country. Starbucks had lost control of their brand story. The controversy certainly caught Starbucks by surprise. Only after the issue developed did it release a statement noting that with the new design, “Starbucks is inviting customers to create their own stories with a red cup that mimics a blank canvas.”
This was the second time in a year that Starbucks had used their coffee cups to make a political statement. Earlier in the year, in order to promote unity among people, they encouraged their baristas to write #RaceTogether on cups. But the campaign didn’t sit well with some Starbucks customers. Many voiced on social media and elsewhere that they didn’t want a debate with their brew. So Starbucks backed down.

Howard Schultz’s note to employees acknowledged the sceptics as an anticipated part of the outreach. “While there has been criticism of the initiative — and I know this hasn’t been easy for any of you — let me assure you that we didn’t expect universal praise.” Shultz said the campaign at its core aims to make sure that “the promise of the American Dream should be available to every person in this country, not just a select few.” Clearly, the average Starbucks consumer didn’t want a conversation–just a latte.

Brands need to be careful about over-playing their purpose. Consultants and Marketers are currently in love with brand purpose. Books, videos and boardroom meetings on brand purpose. I love brand purpose as well, but many times it is better used for the internal marketing. You have to understand what type of brand you are. And while internally, brand purpose drives the culture of Starbucks, externally to consumers Starbucks is an experience brand. Trying to mix the two, appears to leave consumers with a bad experience. To many consumers, Starbucks is an escape. With the current political climate, Starbucks needs to just keep things simple to ensure people can have that comfort of the escape. The consumer is now begging Starbucks for no more political messages. Can they resist in the future?

And now in 2016, Starbucks has done the right brand move going to 13 distinct Holiday designs.Taking last year’s controversy where consumers were drawing on their own cups, Starbucks has taken the best designs from their customers around the world and made them part of this year’s campaign. Here’s the video on the new red cups.

Smart recovery move by Starbucks. Now everyone can enjoy their little red cups in peace and harmony. Let’s see which brand can stay on brand message longer: Trump or Starbucks.

Stay true to your brand and stay true to your consumers!

Passion in Marketing Execution Matters. If you don’t love it, how do you expect your consumer to love it? If you “sorta like” it, then it will be “sorta ok” in the end. But if you love it, you’ll go the extra mile and make it amazing. To read more about how to drive your Marketing Execution, here is our workshop that shows everything you need to know, to have the smarts of strategy, the discipline of leadership and the passion of creativity to generate brand love in today’s modern world.

Beloved Brands: Who are we?

At Beloved Brands, we promise that we will make your brand stronger and your brand leaders smarter. We provide a new way to look at Brand Management, that uses a provocative approach to align your brand to the sound fundamentals of brand management. We use workshop sessions to help your team create a winning brand positioning that separates your brand in the market, write focused brand plans that everyone can follow and we help you find advertising that drives growth for your brand. We will make your team of Brand Leaders smarter so they can produce exceptional work that drives stronger brand results. Our Beloved Brands training center offers 10 training workshops to get your team of brand leaders ready for success in brand management–including strategic and analytical thinking, writing brand plans, positioning statements and creative brief, making decisions on creative advertising and media plans.

To contact us, email us at graham@beloved-brands.com or call us at 416-885-3911.You can also find us on Twitter @belovedbrands.

Big production, intricate story line, little boy doing something for someone else at Christmas with a slight tear. Sure sounds like John Lewis, right? This year, John Lewis left the door wide open with their slightly boring bouncing dog ad. Marks and Spencer appears ready to steal the best in show prize away.

Here’s the latest Christmas ad for 2016, for Marks and Spencer of the UK. This is a very appealing modern-day take on Santa and of course Mrs Claus, who comes across as modern, empowering with a make-it-happen attitude. Helicopters, GPS and stylish red suit. And if you look very closely, Mrs Claus is reading “Fifty Shades of Red” at the end. All the modern appeal and yet, we have a very simple old-fashioned story of a boy trying to do something nice for his sister. Well done Marks and Spencer. I would give this spot a solid 7.5/10 on the Christmas ad scale. Light on branding, but good solid story-telling in a modern sense. A slight tear at the end. And, most importantly, you just beat John Lewis.

So far, the best ad of the holiday season goes to Burberry, with a fabulous spot. I give this spot a 9.5/10. This Burberry spot will be hard to beat. Click to read below.

Normally, I would rate the John Lewis spots in the 9/10 range, however 2016 falls flat a 5.5 out of 10. Sad to even think that. I am already looking forward to a better 2017 ad from them. To read our story on this year’s John Lewis ad, click on the link below:

Passion in Marketing Execution Matters. If you don’t love it, how do you expect your consumer to love it? If you “sorta like” it, then it will be “sorta ok” in the end. But if you love it, you’ll go the extra mile and make it amazing. To read more about how to drive your Marketing Execution, here is our workshop that shows everything you need to know, to have the smarts of strategy, the discipline of leadership and the passion of creativity to generate brand love in today’s modern world.

Beloved Brands: Who are we?

At Beloved Brands, we promise that we will make your brand stronger and your brand leaders smarter. We provide a new way to look at Brand Management, that uses a provocative approach to align your brand to the sound fundamentals of brand management. We use workshop sessions to help your team create a winning brand positioning that separates your brand in the market, write focused brand plans that everyone can follow and we help you find advertising that drives growth for your brand. We will make your team of Brand Leaders smarter so they can produce exceptional work that drives stronger brand results. Our Beloved Brands training center offers 10 training workshops to get your team of brand leaders ready for success in brand management–including strategic and analytical thinking, writing brand plans, positioning statements and creative brief, making decisions on creative advertising and media plans.

To contact us, email us at graham@beloved-brands.com or call us at 416-885-3911.You can also find us on Twitter @belovedbrands.

I feel like a little kid who races downstairs only to be disappointed by my gift. And then I feel bad about it. I am one of those who love the John Lewis Christmas ads and starts to think about it around early October.

And yet, this year, I just feel “blah”.

Once a year, brand fans await the latest installment of the John Lewis Christmas ad. So much attention, that it creates media hysteria trying to predict when it will be launched. John Lewis took advantage of that hype to use three little 10-second teasers with #BounceBounce to build up the anticipation.

The ad is OK, but not great.

It’s cute, but not brilliant.

It falls a little flat, compared to previous John Lewis ads.

Here is the ad, and before I lose you I have put all the John Lewis Christmas ads below for you to compare with.

Pretty simple story. Kid likes to bounce on things. Dad builds a trampoline. Animals come out and bounce on it. Dog sees them and is jealous. Dog bounces on the trampoline before the kid gets to it. Kid disappointed? Mom and Dad disappointed? No one seems happy.

How do you feel about it? Is it just me?

The people at John Lewis felt that last year’s spot was “too sad” and they didn’t want to do “sad-vertising” anymore. Personally, I loved last year’s spot. It did bring a tear to my eye, but in a good way. John Lewis has also said they are trying to tap into the insight that 2016 has been a tough year, with Brexit and the US elections. Wouldn’t a more elaborate story be a better escape for consumers?

John Lewis has created a legacy around Christmas that is tough to live up to

I have worked on campaigns that lasted 10 years and 5 years. The hardest thing for a Marketer is to stay on track, yet try to beat last year’s spot. It is very hard to be creatively different, yet stay in line with the campaign. Those fight against each other. Since 2009, John Lewis has wiggled a little each year. But what they have not done yet, is sold out to the pressure. Each year, the ads have been highly creative, the ads that created the magic simply through the eyes of the children in the ads. The emphasis has always been on giving. You will see there is not a lot John Lewis branding in any of these ads, but there is a certain degree of ownership.

Rachel Swift, head of brand marketing at John Lewis, says “It is has become part of our handwriting as a brand. It’s about storytelling through music and emotion. The sentiment behind that hasn’t changed – and that is quite intentional. The strategy behind our campaigns is always about thoughtful gifting.”

Let’s use that summary to see how well the 2016 spot lives up to the John Lewis ads of the past?

There is not much of a story.

It is not very emotional at all.

It is not really about thoughtful gifting.

No one in the ad even seems happy.

In my view, 2016 ad falls flat and now I have to turn my attention to other retailers to see what they do. My hope is someone does something extra special. Right now John Lewis is the gold standard for Christmas ads and this latest puts them at risk that another retailer easily outshines them.

The history of John Lewis Ads

Here is last year’s spot, that might have gone overboard on sad. But I truly loved it.

Yes, the man on the moon is a metaphor (sorry, there really isn’t a man on the moon) for reaching out and giving someone a gift. For me, this ad quickly reminds me of when my own kids are on the phone or FaceTime with my mom. There is a certain magic in the innocence and simplicity when the very young talk with older people. They both seem to get it, maybe sometimes more than the in-between ages where the innocence of Christmas is lost within their busy schedules.

Here are the John Lewis spots from the last few years and you can tell me which one you like the best.

2014: Monty the Penguin:

Here is the one from 2011, about the boy who couldn’t wait for Christmas. You will notice this year’s Man on the Moon feels very similar.

This is also a great one from 2010

And you can see the one from 2009.

In 2012, the “snowman” ad felt bit too dark for me with the tone feeling like a slight miss for John Lewis. I felt they were trying too hard. Maybe feeling the pressure to keep the campaign alive by being different when really the consumer just wants the fast-becoming-familiar-John-Lewis-magic each year.

I also found the 2013 ad a bit of a departure, going to animation and utilizing on-line and in-store media. This campaign seems trying too hard to capitalize on their success. Doesn’t feel like a fit.

I guess I’ll have to wait for the 2017 John Lewis Christmas ad! 🙁

Christmas is 8 weeks away. Expect to see this spot a lot on your social media feed. But, also expect the other UK retailers to compete as they did last year. Here is a link to the 7 best Holiday ads for last year:

Passion in Marketing Execution Matters.If you don’t love it, how do you expect your consumer to love it? If you “sorta like” it, then it will be “sorta ok” in the end. But if you love it, you’ll go the extra mile and make it amazing. To read more about how to drive your Marketing Execution, here is our workshop that shows everything you need to know, to have the smarts of strategy, the discipline of leadership and the passion of creativity to generate brand love in today’s modern world.

Beloved Brands: Who are we?

At Beloved Brands, we promise that we will make your brand stronger and your brand leaders smarter. We provide a new way to look at Brand Management, that uses a provocative approach to align your brand to the sound fundamentals of brand management. We use workshop sessions to help your team create a winning brand positioning that separates your brand in the market, write focused brand plans that everyone can follow and we help you find advertising that drives growth for your brand. We will make your team of Brand Leaders smarter so they can produce exceptional work that drives stronger brand results. Our Beloved Brands training center offers 10 training workshops to get your team of brand leaders ready for success in brand management–including strategic and analytical thinking, writing brand plans, positioning statements and creative brief, making decisions on creative advertising and media plans.

To contact us, email us at graham@beloved-brands.com or call us at 416-885-3911.You can also find us on Twitter @belovedbrands.

In a very small window, just before John Lewis is about to launch their 2016 Christmas ad, Burberry has stolen the show and managed to capture the attention of the internet with an epic 3-minute mini movie. The production qualities so rich, the story telling so strong and the passion so real. This cinematic movie trailer utilizes Academy Award-winning director Asif Kapadia and it was written by Academy Award-nominee Matt Charman.

Burberry calls this ad “The Tale of Thomas Burberry. 160 years in the making, a story inspired by the pioneering discoveries of our founder, reimagining key events that have shaped Burberry’s history”.

The ad portrays Thomas Burberry as an obsessive inventor and entrepreneur showcasing the emotion he put into his craft. It may take liberties on the excitement of his life–bordering on making him into the world’s most interesting man in the world–but we certainly can feel his purpose and passion shining through.

This ad is clearly targeted at those who already love the Burberry brand, giving them another reason to love the brand, and getting them to whisper with influence to their social network by sharing this ad with their friends. The internet is going crazy for Thomas Burberry, with almost 5 million views after a few days. The comments on line are demanding a full length movie version be brought to life.

Passion in Marketing Execution Matters.If you don’t love it, how do you expect your consumer to love it? If you “sorta like” it, then it will be “sorta ok” in the end. But if you love it, you’ll go the extra mile and make it amazing. To read more about how to drive your Marketing Execution, here is our workshop that shows everything you need to know, to have the smarts of strategy, the discipline of leadership and the passion of creativity to generate brand love in today’s modern world.

Beloved Brands: Who are we?

At Beloved Brands, we promise that we will make your brand stronger and your brand leaders smarter. We provide a new way to look at Brand Management, that uses a provocative approach to align your brand to the sound fundamentals of brand management. We use workshop sessions to help your team create a winning brand positioning that separates your brand in the market, write focused brand plans that everyone can follow and we help you find advertising that drives growth for your brand. We will make your team of Brand Leaders smarter so they can produce exceptional work that drives stronger brand results. Our Beloved Brands training center offers 10 training workshops to get your team of brand leaders ready for success in brand management–including strategic and analytical thinking, writing brand plans, positioning statements and creative brief, making decisions on creative advertising and media plans.

To contact us, email us at graham@beloved-brands.com or call us at 416-885-3911.You can also find us on Twitter @belovedbrands.

As of this morning, the U.S. product safety officials announced a recall affecting 2.8 million Samsung washing machines, across 34 top-loading Samsung models sold at various stores starting in 2011. There have been more than 700 reports of incidents and nine reports of injuries including a broken jaw, the agency said Friday. There is also a class action lawsuit underway.

This in addition to the recall of 2.5 million of their Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phone, who have also had a problem with exploding phones. For those of us who have been traveling the past few weeks, you will notice that the Samsung phones are being banned on most flights for fear of explosions.

Earlier this month, Samsung had already warned that it would take a more than $5 billion hit to operating profit from the third quarter of 2016 up to the first quarter of 2017. Samsung had slashed its operating profit guidance, with final results on Thursday coming in line with expectations. The South Korean electronics giant now said that it aims to boost fourth-quarter earnings through its flagship Galaxy S7 smartphone as well as lower-tier models. Investors were expecting the third quarter to be the bottom for Samsung, but this most recent announcement might be one more plunge for the company.

Will Samsung get out in front of this?

So far, there has been a lack of communication coming from the leaders of Samsung. Typically, the Samsung senior management team operates with a very secretive approach. Nothing goes public. Yet for a crisis like this, especially as it is impacting the US market so dramatically, Samsung should take a more active public stance. The consumers need to hear from you.

For the Smart Phones, I was suggesting that Samsung should use a “True Innovation brings risks” which fits with their position of being at the forefront of innovation. They should look to make quick fixes to their processes to ensure it does not happen again, ensuring their next phone launch has been tested like no other smart phone in the industry. They can also utilize their main competitor–Apple–who is not currently taking risks with their death by incrementalism approach to the iPhone 5-6-7 offering catch up technology at best. This type of message would have fit perfectly with the Galaxy target audience, who are true innovators and love new product technology rather than the slick sales pitch of Apple.

However, for a smart phone to truly win, it must move beyond the niche of the innovators and capture the mass market. That’s the concern this washing machine recall will cause. It is also the concern I have for the brand when every flight attendant tells people to turn off their Samsung phones. This concern will make your average homeowner have serious doubts about the quality of the Samsung brand name. They will wonder how safe the next models will be. They will start to doubt whether to get their 13-year-old a Samsung phone, or even whether the family 54 inch LED TV will be safe?

Brand Turnaround 101

As the leader you need to change the business direction with new people, new plan, new ideas, new attitude. Before even creating the plan, you need to get the right leadership talent in place. Start with talent, motivation and alignment. Look to close leaks on the Brand by using brand funnel to assess and then our leaky bucket tool to close leaks. I always say cut the fat and re-invest. This is a great opportunity to go through every investment decision, investing only in programs that give you an early break through win. I always create a 3-stage plan turnaround plan. In stage 1, find early/obvious win, halts slide, helps motivation. In stage 2, invest behind new positioning/new plan, focused decisions, take risks. In stage 3, make adjustments to plan, build innovation behind new ideas that fit plan. As a leader, it is crucial to motivate a potentially demotivated team. Losing can be contagious to a culture an a team. Recognize wins to fuel performance driven culture. They may doubt you until they start to see some early wins.

Samsung better do something, or else.

All is quiet in the Samsung world this morning. What would you do if you were Samsung?

To read more onStrategic Thinking, here is the workshop we take brand leaders through to help make them smarter.

Beloved Brands: Who are we?

At Beloved Brands, we promise that we will make your brand stronger and your brand leaders smarter. We provide a new way to look at Brand Management, that uses a provocative approach to align your brand to the sound fundamentals of brand management. We use workshop sessions to help your team create a winning brand positioning that separates your brand in the market, write focused brand plans that everyone can follow and we help you find advertising that drives growth for your brand. We will make your team of Brand Leaders smarter so they can produce exceptional work that drives stronger brand results. Our Beloved Brands training center offers 10 training workshops to get your team of brand leaders ready for success in brand management–including strategic and analytical thinking, writing brand plans, positioning statements and creative brief, making decisions on creative advertising and media plans.

To contact us, email us at graham@beloved-brands.com or call us at 416-885-3911.You can also find us on Twitter @belovedbrands.

After 15 years, BMW films returns to the Internet. Can they recreate the magic from the original?

Here’s the new spot:

This is 10-minute high-quality production movie, with Clive Owen as the lead. However, the car is the true hero, as we can see the handling, speed, braking and the quietness of the car. Even filled with bullets the car still looks amazing.

This spot has 2 Million views after 4 days in the Market. That should put it on a pace for 30+ million views–maybe more if it takes off.

In 2001, BMW launched BMW Films, light years ahead of the industry.

While everyone was still worried about producing 30s and 15s and newspaper ads, most brand leaders were still thinking whether they could afford to put 1% of their budgets into the Internet. From a brand point of view to that point, BMW had always used traditional media like TV and Print to sell their cars. But they saw that things were changing, especially seeing that the role of the internet on the purchase cycle. Roughly 85% of BMW purchasers use the Internet before purchasing a BMW. BMW knew that the average work-hard, play-hard customer was 46 years old, with a median income of about $150,000. Two-thirds were male, married, and had no children. Competitively, BMW has a lot of love but it was still battling traditional rival Mercedes who had the most love of all Luxury Car Brands. BMW needed to put their stake in the ground to push to be the Most Beloved Luxury Car brand. They needed something that the consumer would love and in turn love the BMW brand.

Integrated Content at its Best

The idea of BMW Films was to cast the BMW car as a hero into the starring role of a movie, and in fact many movies. Fifteen years ago, BMW assembled a cast of A-list directors (Guy Richie, Tony Scott, Ang Lee) and A-list actors (Clive Owen Forest Whittiker, Madonna, Mickey Rourke), and developed scripts within the basic framework of having a central character that helped people through difficult circumstances using deft driving skills—in a BMW. The car became the star. Each director who chose a script was then given complete creative control over content and direction, something they would be hard-pressed to find in Hollywood, and something that BMW ordinarily wouldn’t allow if filming a traditional advertisement.

Here’s the original spot from 15 years ago, with Clive Owen and Madonna.

BMW used traditional media with mock movie trailers on TV and on-line advertising to surround their consumer and drive traffic to the website. The end results were staggering: the series had been viewed over 100 million times in four yearsand had changed the way products were advertised. BMW has had a great decade of sales, recently surpassing both Lexus and Mercedes as the #1 luxury brand.

BMW Films was out there. It took risks, and was an incredible production. To me, it’s still the benchmark for Content Marketing. To me, it’s like Bob Beamon surpassing the long jump record by 2 1/2 feet when everyone else was measuring in inches. It’s like Babe Ruth hitting 60 home runs when the next guy had 17. I hope to see other brands step it up, rather than a lot of the crap that gets shoved out to the market. I sure hope we see BMW films again next year!

In the past 15 years I’m yet to say “Now, that’s better than BMW Films”

To read more on Marketing Execution, here is the workshop we take brand leaders through to help make them smarter.

Beloved Brands: Who are we?

At Beloved Brands, we promise that we will make your brand stronger and your brand leaders smarter. We provide a new way to look at Brand Management, that uses a provocative approach to align your brand to the sound fundamentals of brand management. We use workshop sessions to help your team create a winning brand positioning that separates your brand in the market, write focused brand plans that everyone can follow and we help you find advertising that drives growth for your brand. We will make your team of Brand Leaders smarter so they can produce exceptional work that drives stronger brand results. Our Beloved Brands training center offers 10 training workshops to get your team of brand leaders ready for success in brand management–including strategic and analytical thinking, writing brand plans, positioning statements and creative brief, making decisions on creative advertising and media plans.

To contact us, email us at graham@beloved-brands.com or call us at 416-885-3911.You can also find us on Twitter @belovedbrands.

I love when a TV ad really captures the consumer insight and I stop and say “that’s exactly how I feel”. A lot of people use the term “brand truths” to describe an insight.

Well, like the famous “Not your father’s Oldsmobile” ad from a few decades ago, unfortunately Sears just nailed the consumer insight, and not in a good way, in their latest ad that says “Attention people cutting through Sears, just to get to the Mall”. Yikes.

While Sears is definitely highlighting the truth in how consumers feel about Sears, they aren’t moving the consumer into a new space. We already know we can get a low quality sweater at Sears. The only thing we don’t know about Sears is why you are still around. There’s no purpose or passion here. No point of difference from someone else. We have seen Sears closing store after store. But why should we stop cutting through Sears to get to the mall? What Sears did wrong here is used the insight to make their brand look like a loser. Just like Oldsmobile, no one wants to be associated with a brand that portrays itself in negative light. I am not sure there is a place for Sears in the market. They could take a run at being the small town department store, where they are the only big player in town? Brands have to be better, different, cheaper or not around for very long. They are not better or different, and with Walmart, they are no longer cheaper. They are on a steady decline since 1980, with no real end in sight. Sadly, this type of ad will speed up their demise.

Consumer Insights are little secrets hidden beneath the surface, that explain the underlying behaviors, motivations, pain points and emotions of your consumers. Brands should think of consumer insights as a competitive advantage, equal in importance to a patent or intellectual property. The insights are what enable brands to connect with their consumers on a deeper emotional level, showing your consumer that “WE GET YOU” so that consumers will stop and listen to your brand’s promise, brand story, innovation and consumer experiences that you create along the pathway to becoming a beloved brand.

Arguably, Sears nailed the insight. They just haven’t given the consumer a reason to shop there.

Hey Sears! Why do you still exist?

Below is one of the workshops we run to help Brand Leaders enhance their strategic thinking.

Beloved Brands: Who are we?

At Beloved Brands, we will make your brand stronger and your brand leaders smarter. We lead workshops to define your brand, helping you uncover a unique, own-able Brand Positioning Statement and an organizing Big Idea that transforms your brand’s DNA into a consumer-centric and winning brand reputation. We lead workshops to build a strategic Brand Plan that will optimize your resources and motivates everyone that touches the brand to follow the plan. We coach on Marketing execution, helping build programs that create a bond with your consumers, to ensure your investment drives growth on your brand. We will build a Brand Management Training Program, so you can unleash the full potential of your Marketing team, enabling them to contribute smart and exceptional Marketing work that drives brand growth. We cover strategic thinking, analytics, brand planning, brand positioning, creative briefs, customer marketing and marketing execution.

Learn the fundamentals of Marketing

At Beloved Brands, we can build a Brand Management Training Program, to unleash the full potential of your Marketing team

How to think strategically: We believe that Strategic Thinking is an essential foundation, to help Marketers ask big questions that challenge and focus brand decisions. We teach the value of asking good questions, using four interruptive questions to help frame your brand’s strategy, looking at your competitive position, your brand’s core strength, the connectivity with your consumer and the internal situation your brand faces.

Write smarter Brand Plans: We demonstrate how to write each component of the Brand Plan, looking at brand vision, purpose, values, goals, key Issues, strategies and tactics. We provide a full mock brand plan, with a framework for you to use on your own brand. We show how to build Marketing Execution plans as part of the overall brand plan, looking at a Brand Communications Plan, Innovation Plan, In-store plan and Experiential plan. This gives the strategic direction to everyone in the organization.

Create winning Brand Positioning Statements: We show how to write a classic Brand Positioning statement with four key elements: target market, competitive set, main benefit and reason to believe (RTBs). We then show how to build an Organizing Big Idea that leads every aspect of your brand, including promise, story, innovation, purchase moment and experience.

Write smarter Creative Briefs: The Creative Brief frames the strategy and positioning so your Agency can creatively express the brand promise through communication. The hands-on Creative Brief workshop explores best in class methods for writing the brief’s objective, target market, consumer insights, main message stimulus and the desired consumer response.

Be smarter at Brand Analytics: We show how to build a deep-dive business review on the brand, looking at the category, consumers, competitors, channels and brand. We start with the smart analytical principles that will challenge your thinking and help you gain more support by telling analytical stories through data. We teach how to turn your analysis into a presentation for management, showing the ideal presentation slide format.

Get better Marketing Execution: We provide Brand Leaders with tools and techniques for judging communication concepts from your agencies, as well as processes for making decisions and providing effective feedback. We teach how to make marketing decisions with the ABC’S, so you can choose great ads and reject bad ads looking at tools such as Attention (A), Branding (B), Communication (C) and Stickiness (S). We teach how to provide copy direction that inspires and challenges the agency to deliver great execution.

How to build Media Plans: We look at media as an investment and as a brand growth strategy, exploring various media options—both traditional and on-line. We bring a more consumer centric approach to media, aligning the media choices to where your consumer will be most likely to engage with your brand message. We look at all the types of Media through the lens of the Brand Leader, with advice on how to use traditional media options, such as TV, radio, newspaper, out-of-home and Modern media options such as digital, social and search.

Winning the Purchase Moment: We provide brand leaders with analytics, planning and decision making tools to help their instincts and judgement for moving consumers to purchase. Complete in-store business review, looking at categories, consumer shopping behavior, competitors, customers and the overall brand performance. We teach the basics of customer marketing planning, identifying the target consumer, in-store messages, strategies, tactics and project management. We look at the available tools for customer marketing including pricing, promotions, retail shelf management, merchandising and operational execution.

I am a huge brand fan of both Apple and Google. And while I’m frustrated by the incremental innovation of Apple the last few years, I have to say I am in complete shock over the recent launch of the Google Pixel I am seeing. I was hoping for so much more. I was hoping it would be innovative, hoping it would be different and hoping it would be smarter. I was just hoping for something. Not more of the same. Sad.

I am an iPhone 6s plus user and I am likely your average smart phone consumer. I would say I basically want to know and nothing more. I have my email, my social media platforms, my Netflix, a few games and some useful apps. I know how to turn on Airplane mode and use my iPhone as my remote control during slide presentations. There is a cost to switching phones, and that is the feeling of stupidity you go through when everything is on the phone, just in different places. Prior to this phone I had used the Samsung Galaxy 3. I will admit any day that Samsung is the superior product. It’s just not very easy to use. The buttons aren’t in the right place. It might be smart for the total tech geek. It is just not intuitive for the mass consumer.

I was excited this week when I saw that a Google smart phone was being released. I watch their new TV ad a few times. And I still don’t get it. There is nothing in this ad that would suggest that the new Google phone is anything different. So I searched articles (using Google of course) to see if anyone on-line was talking about the differences between the iPhone and the new Google pixel phone. I even went as far as to read comparison charts. My conclusion: they have the same phone. Same size camera, same price, same size screen etc….They even look the same. So I went back and watch the TV ad again and again. Even the TV ad looks like an apple ad.

Only 357k views for that TV ad. That’s shockingly low from the company that owns YouTube? Wow. Plus Google has a history of making some damn fine ads in the past. I sure hope the agency didn’t talk them into the “be cool by being minimalist, as it will make consumers curious”. This ad isn’t different. It’s just plain boring.

Brands have four choices: better, different, cheaper or not around for very long.

Sadly for Google, this might just be like the launch of Google+. Lots of sizzle up front, but a slow fizzle on a long slow path towards a brand death.

Yes, I realize bed Google has tons of cash. They will likely gain some share from the audience that hates the other two companies: Samsung and Apple. This seems like the Gary Johnson approach to gaining a 5% market share. And Google just might gain a 5% share. But this isn’t going to revolutionize the smart phone category. Even if you are a huge Google brand fan, there is no way you are EXCITED about this launch.

Below is the Google Pixel launch video that tries to take a lot of the same Apple features and makes them seem “new”. It has already had 4.8 million views, suggesting there is a real appetite for something different. But people still can’t find the difference. Google “difference between Google Pixel and iPhone 7” and you will see tons of articles by experts that can’t figure out any real difference. Sure, the virtual reality might be different, but the consumers might not even be ready for that. And if you say, you want it, then you are not the average consumer. You would be in the 0.1% share category. Apple can use their quick-follower approach to have Virtual Reality into their phones by the time the mass market is ready.

I read in the industry papers that Google is going to go after Apple consumers. To do so, they need to take a real challenger brand mentality and turn Apple’s strengths into a potential weakness, while amplify their own strengths. Even though Google has been a tremendous innovator in the search area, they have done the me-too copy in a few different categories already. Gmail is pretty much the same as Outlook. Google+ is a poor man’s version of Facebook—with 3.5 million active Google+ users instead of the 1.7 billion Facebook users. Maybe Google is just throwing this Pixel launch out there hoping to get a few sales. But for consumers, that would truly suck, wouldn’t it?

Here are the flaws of Google’s launch:

You cannot be loved until you are liked:With any new product, no matter who is launching, you must assume you are at the unknown/indifferent stage. Sure Google is beloved, but this new phone is still an unknown. You have to stand out so consumers see the brand in a crowded market place and you have to establish your brand in the consumer’s mind. The new Google Pixel ad looks isn’t very different at all, so it will not stand out and it fails to say anything that will make me understand their point of difference. I hope this is just a teaser. Or, I hope the new ads bombs very quickly and Google course corrects and can still maintain a successful launch. POINT OUT THE DIFFERENCES PLEASE!!! I REALLY WANT TO KNOW!!!

Build on the strengths of your master brand:Google is a product-led brand while Apple is an idea-led brand. This new phone will never re-define the overall master brand so it would be wise to fit into the overall strategy. Google needs to establish your reputation as the superior brand in the category, defending against any challengers to your position. Continue to invest in Innovation to stay ahead of competitors, being the leader in technology, claims, and new formats. Early on, they should leverage product-focused mass communication, directly calling attention to the superiority and differences in your product versus the competitors. Use product reviews and key influencers to support your brand. Build the “how you do it” into your brand story, to re-enforce point of difference. Use rational selling to move consumers along the buying system.

If you want to be a Challenger brand, then have the guts to act like one.The mistake that many brands make is trying to exploit your competitor’s weakness. While it seems the obvious victory, you are wasting your resources because consumers already know your competitors weakness. You are not altering their mind. A more powerful strategy is to attack your competitor’s strength and turn into a weakness, by making their strength either less important or interesting. You begin to change the consumer’s mind about your competitor. Google should go after the business market, and exploit the idea that Apple is a fun toy, but not a serious business machine. This would position Apple as cute and fun, but lacking in the substance needed you would get with an integrated package from Google. They may need to build in a more integrated platform.

If Google wants to bring emotion into the advertising, they have to pick the right emotional zones to own.Google has a history of telling great stories around the knowledge and control space, while Apple usually targets the freedom and optimism space very well. This new ad for Google Pixel does a poor job in communicating knowledge. It looks like an Apple ad, because it tries to play in the fun/free space. I would prefer that Google show people benefiting from being smart, rather than benefiting from the escape of life. This Google ad below would be the type of ad would have been much better for the new Google phone. It is attention getting, about the brand, communicates the clear points of difference and it will stick in the consumer’s mind. Go back to your agency and get them to make that, rather than the crap you just released.

Let’s hope that Google hits control-alt-delete on their initial phase of the launch and comes up with a real product that can accelerate the incremental innovation we are seeing in the smartphone category.

I want the new Google phone to work. I’m just afraid it will fail and fail fast.

To read more on Strategic Thinking, here is our training workshop that we run to help Marketers get smarter:

Beloved Brands: Who are we?

At Beloved Brands, we will make your brand stronger and your brand leaders smarter. We lead workshops to define your brand, helping you uncover a unique, own-able Brand Positioning Statement and an organizing Big Idea that transforms your brand’s DNA into a consumer-centric and winning brand reputation. We lead workshops to build a strategic Brand Plan that will optimize your resources and motivates everyone that touches the brand to follow the plan. We coach on Marketing execution, helping build programs that create a bond with your consumers, to ensure your investment drives growth on your brand. We will build a Brand Management Training Program, so you can unleash the full potential of your Marketing team, enabling them to contribute smart and exceptional Marketing work that drives brand growth. We cover strategic thinking, analytics, brand planning, brand positioning, creative briefs, customer marketing and marketing execution.

Beloved Brands Training program

At Beloved Brands, we can build a Brand Management Training Program, to unleash the full potential of your Marketing team

How to think strategically: We believe that Strategic Thinking is an essential foundation, to help Marketers ask big questions that challenge and focus brand decisions. We teach the value of asking good questions, using four interruptive questions to help frame your brand’s strategy, looking at your competitive position, your brand’s core strength, the connectivity with your consumer and the internal situation your brand faces.

Write smarter Brand Plans: We demonstrate how to write each component of the Brand Plan, looking at brand vision, purpose, values, goals, key Issues, strategies and tactics. We provide a full mock brand plan, with a framework for you to use on your own brand. We show how to build Marketing Execution plans as part of the overall brand plan, looking at a Brand Communications Plan, Innovation Plan, In-store plan and Experiential plan. This gives the strategic direction to everyone in the organization.

Create winning Brand Positioning Statements: We show how to write a classic Brand Positioning statement with four key elements: target market, competitive set, main benefit and reason to believe (RTBs). We then show how to build an Organizing Big Idea that leads every aspect of your brand, including promise, story, innovation, purchase moment and experience.

Write smarter Creative Briefs: The Creative Brief frames the strategy and positioning so your Agency can creatively express the brand promise through communication. The hands-on Creative Brief workshop explores best in class methods for writing the brief’s objective, target market, consumer insights, main message stimulus and the desired consumer response.

Be smarter at Brand Analytics: We show how to build a deep-dive business review on the brand, looking at the category, consumers, competitors, channels and brand. We start with the smart analytical principles that will challenge your thinking and help you gain more support by telling analytical stories through data. We teach how to turn your analysis into a presentation for management, showing the ideal presentation slide format.

Get better Marketing Execution: We provide Brand Leaders with tools and techniques for judging communication concepts from your agencies, as well as processes for making decisions and providing effective feedback. We teach how to make marketing decisions with the ABC’S, so you can choose great ads and reject bad ads looking at tools such as Attention (A), Branding (B), Communication (C) and Stickiness (S). We teach how to provide copy direction that inspires and challenges the agency to deliver great execution.

How to build Media Plans: We look at media as an investment and as a brand growth strategy, exploring various media options—both traditional and on-line. We bring a more consumer centric approach to media, aligning the media choices to where your consumer will be most likely to engage with your brand message. We look at all the types of Media through the lens of the Brand Leader, with advice on how to use traditional media options, such as TV, radio, newspaper, out-of-home and Modern media options such as digital, social and search.

Winning the Purchase Moment: We provide brand leaders with analytics, planning and decision making tools to help their instincts and judgement for moving consumers to purchase. Complete in-store business review, looking at categories, consumer shopping behavior, competitors, customers and the overall brand performance. We teach the basics of customer marketing planning, identifying the target consumer, in-store messages, strategies, tactics and project management. We look at the available tools for customer marketing including pricing, promotions, retail shelf management, merchandising and operational execution.

With a multi-billion dollar shaving market dominated by two players, and a big consumer complaint about the cost of razors, Dollar Shave found a nice niche on line where they send out cheap razors through a prescription model. Makes $50Million in the first year, not worth it for Gillette to bother. Three years later, Unilever bought them for $1Billion. And now with such a strong customer list, Dollar Shave is poised to sell more and more of the basic bathroom necessities.

Next up, body wash. Not only is Dollar Shave attacking P&G’s “Old Spice” but their very own Axe (now that they are owned by Unilever). That takes guts as a brand. These ads are for the older millennial in their 30’s who don’t want to smell like a 20-something “idiot”. Love when you can see the consumer insights come to life in an ad.

The first spot attacks Old Spice:

The second spot clearly goes after the Axe brand:

Both Dollar Shave ads are very funny. High on Attention, solid on Branding, and nailed the Communication. I always respect making fun of the competition, especially from the rebellious position. Rebel Brands Goes against the category: Going into an area where it’s too small for the Leaders to take notice or are unable to attack back. Pick a segment small enough that it won’t be noticed and you’ll be able to defend it. They believe it is better to be loved by a few than play with power players. As long as Dollar Shave is committed to growing this segment, these ads can stick, and be part of the overall Dollar Shave brand. Looking forward to seeing more from Dollar Shave.

As a reminder of where Dollar Shave started, here’s the original launch campaign.

To read more on Marketing Execution, here is our training workshop that we run to help Marketers get smarter:

Beloved Brands: Who are we?

At Beloved Brands, we will make your brand stronger and your brand leaders smarter. We lead workshops to define your brand, helping you uncover a unique, own-able Brand Positioning Statement and an organizing Big Idea that transforms your brand’s DNA into a consumer-centric and winning brand reputation. We lead workshops to build a strategic Brand Plan that will optimize your resources and motivates everyone that touches the brand to follow the plan. We coach on Marketing execution, helping build programs that create a bond with your consumers, to ensure your investment drives growth on your brand. We will build a Brand Management Training Program, so you can unleash the full potential of your Marketing team, enabling them to contribute smart and exceptional Marketing work that drives brand growth. We cover strategic thinking, analytics, brand planning, brand positioning, creative briefs, customer marketing and marketing execution.

Beloved Brands Training program

At Beloved Brands, we can build a Brand Management Training Program, to unleash the full potential of your Marketing team

How to think strategically: We believe that Strategic Thinking is an essential foundation, to help Marketers ask big questions that challenge and focus brand decisions. We teach the value of asking good questions, using four interruptive questions to help frame your brand’s strategy, looking at your competitive position, your brand’s core strength, the connectivity with your consumer and the internal situation your brand faces.

Write smarter Brand Plans: We demonstrate how to write each component of the Brand Plan, looking at brand vision, purpose, values, goals, key Issues, strategies and tactics. We provide a full mock brand plan, with a framework for you to use on your own brand. We show how to build Marketing Execution plans as part of the overall brand plan, looking at a Brand Communications Plan, Innovation Plan, In-store plan and Experiential plan. This gives the strategic direction to everyone in the organization.

Create winning Brand Positioning Statements: We show how to write a classic Brand Positioning statement with four key elements: target market, competitive set, main benefit and reason to believe (RTBs). We then show how to build an Organizing Big Idea that leads every aspect of your brand, including promise, story, innovation, purchase moment and experience.

Write smarter Creative Briefs: The Creative Brief frames the strategy and positioning so your Agency can creatively express the brand promise through communication. The hands-on Creative Brief workshop explores best in class methods for writing the brief’s objective, target market, consumer insights, main message stimulus and the desired consumer response.

Be smarter at Brand Analytics: We show how to build a deep-dive business review on the brand, looking at the category, consumers, competitors, channels and brand. We start with the smart analytical principles that will challenge your thinking and help you gain more support by telling analytical stories through data. We teach how to turn your analysis into a presentation for management, showing the ideal presentation slide format.

Get better Marketing Execution: We provide Brand Leaders with tools and techniques for judging communication concepts from your agencies, as well as processes for making decisions and providing effective feedback. We teach how to make marketing decisions with the ABC’S, so you can choose great ads and reject bad ads looking at tools such as Attention (A), Branding (B), Communication (C) and Stickiness (S). We teach how to provide copy direction that inspires and challenges the agency to deliver great execution.

How to build Media Plans: We look at media as an investment and as a brand growth strategy, exploring various media options—both traditional and on-line. We bring a more consumer centric approach to media, aligning the media choices to where your consumer will be most likely to engage with your brand message. We look at all the types of Media through the lens of the Brand Leader, with advice on how to use traditional media options, such as TV, radio, newspaper, out-of-home and Modern media options such as digital, social and search.

Winning the Purchase Moment: We provide brand leaders with analytics, planning and decision making tools to help their instincts and judgement for moving consumers to purchase. Complete in-store business review, looking at categories, consumer shopping behavior, competitors, customers and the overall brand performance. We teach the basics of customer marketing planning, identifying the target consumer, in-store messages, strategies, tactics and project management. We look at the available tools for customer marketing including pricing, promotions, retail shelf management, merchandising and operational execution.

The ratings for Monday night’s US Presidential debate hit an all-time high. Based on recent polls, it appears a very close race. With such a large and captivated audience, the Audi brand did a fantastic job with their new ad released on-line during the debates. This 90 second spot for the new $110,000 Audi R7 is a high quality spot that feels like a Super Bowl ad, with the hope of going viral.

For advertising to be considered effective, it has work to establish your brand’s long-term reputation, based on a simple, unique, own-able and motivating brand positioning while engaging and influencing consumers to see, think, feel, act or scream about your brand, so your brand ends up in a stronger business position. At Beloved Brands, we use the ABC’S to judge whether an ad will work for the brand. (Attention, Branding, Communication and Stickiness). The Attention and Branding are about how you say it, while the Communication and Stickiness are more related to what you say. It is the creative idea that brings them all together.

Attention:You have to get noticed in a crowded media world where consumers see 7000 ads per day. If your brand doesn’t draw attention naturally, then you’ll have to force it into the limelight.

Branding:Ads that tell the story of the relationship between the consumer and the brand will link best. Even more powerful are ads that are from the consumers view of the brand. It’s not how much branding there is, but how close the brand fits to the climax of the ad.

Communication:Tap into the insights of the consumer helps tell the brand’s life story. Keep your story easy to understand, not just about what you say, but how you say it.

Stickiness: Build a consistent experience over time to drive a consistent reputation in the minds and hearts of the consumer.

Our review of the Audi Ad

Audi’s creative idea says “Beautiful things are worth fighting for”. That line just screams consumer desire. To be able to afford a $110,000 luxury car, they are positioning it as a reward for all your hard work. The ad uses the creative idea of “worth fighting for” as the main inspiration for everything in the ad, helping gain attention, driving towards the branding in the end and communicating the desire. As they build this campaign, I hope they keep going with this idea.

They use it to garner the attention of the audience. As I watched the ad, my first thought was “here are two campaign officials about to fight” and in the moment of the debate, I thought this is going to be hilarious. It made me want to watch right away.

In terms of branding, I admire that they waited. Ipsos will tell you that the best brand link comes from the ads where the brand is part of the climax of the story. Too many Marketers mistakenly think it is about how much branding you have in the ad, or how early you have the brand show up. As this is a viral ad, with the Audi name on it, you can really afford to wait. I kept wondering “how are they going to naturally tie this story into the brand?”. Great job.

In terms of communication, they did a great job in creatively expressing desire. That’s what every brand manager asks for, but it is not an easy thing to do. This ad used the build up of the story to pay off that desire with the ending having the two valets about to fight over who gets to drive the new Audi. With any viral ad, in a crowded world of social media it can be hit and miss.

In terms of stickiness, the spot has over a million views after 48 hours. For this type of budget and brand, I would say that is ok-to-good, but not yet amazing. I found it through an industry friend on Facebook. I can see the advertising community loves the spot, but I would like to see it show up more naturally through others on Facebook, Twitter or even LinkedIn. So maybe it’s a case of a poor media play. I hope the brand stays with this type of campaign and continues to build the idea outward. I love it and I am looking forward to the next ad in the campaign.

Lastly, Audi did a great job in staying politically neutral. As a brand coach, unless your brand is closely related to the outcome of one party over the other, with a 45%-to-45% race, only a foolish brand would publicly pick sides.

To read more on Marketing Execution, here is our training workshop that we run to help Marketers get smarter:

Beloved Brands: Who are we?

At Beloved Brands, we will make your brand stronger and your brand leaders smarter. We lead workshops to define your brand, helping you uncover a unique, own-able Brand Positioning Statement and an organizing Big Idea that transforms your brand’s DNA into a consumer-centric and winning brand reputation. We lead workshops to build a strategic Brand Plan that will optimize your resources and motivates everyone that touches the brand to follow the plan. We coach on Marketing execution, helping build programs that create a bond with your consumers, to ensure your investment drives growth on your brand. We will build a Brand Management Training Program, so you can unleash the full potential of your Marketing team, enabling them to contribute smart and exceptional Marketing work that drives brand growth. We cover strategic thinking, analytics, brand planning, brand positioning, creative briefs, customer marketing and marketing execution.

Beloved Brands Training program

At Beloved Brands, we can build a Brand Management Training Program, to unleash the full potential of your Marketing team

How to think strategically: We believe that Strategic Thinking is an essential foundation, to help Marketers ask big questions that challenge and focus brand decisions. We teach the value of asking good questions, using four interruptive questions to help frame your brand’s strategy, looking at your competitive position, your brand’s core strength, the connectivity with your consumer and the internal situation your brand faces.

Write smarter Brand Plans:We demonstrate how to write each component of the Brand Plan, looking at brand vision, purpose, values, goals, key Issues, strategies and tactics. We provide a full mock brand plan, with a framework for you to use on your own brand. We show how to build Marketing Execution plans as part of the overall brand plan, looking at a Brand Communications Plan, Innovation Plan, In-store plan and Experiential plan. This gives the strategic direction to everyone in the organization.

Create winning Brand Positioning Statements:We show how to write a classic Brand Positioning statement with four key elements: target market, competitive set, main benefit and reason to believe (RTBs). We then show how to build an Organizing Big Idea that leads every aspect of your brand, including promise, story, innovation, purchase moment and experience.

Write smarter Creative Briefs: The Creative Brief frames the strategy and positioning so your Agency can creatively express the brand promise through communication. The hands-on Creative Brief workshop explores best in class methods for writing the brief’s objective, target market, consumer insights, main message stimulus and the desired consumer response.

Be smarter at Brand Analytics:We show how to build a deep-dive business review on the brand, looking at the category, consumers, competitors, channels and brand. We start with the smart analytical principles that will challenge your thinking and help you gain more support by telling analytical stories through data. We teach how to turn your analysis into a presentation for management, showing the ideal presentation slide format.

Get better Marketing Execution:We provide Brand Leaders with tools and techniques for judging communication concepts from your agencies, as well as processes for making decisions and providing effective feedback. We teach how to make marketing decisions with the ABC’S, so you can choose great ads and reject bad ads looking at tools such as Attention (A), Branding (B), Communication (C) and Stickiness (S). We teach how to provide copy direction that inspires and challenges the agency to deliver great execution.

How to build Media Plans:We look at media as an investment and as a brand growth strategy, exploring various media options—both traditional and on-line. We bring a more consumer centric approach to media, aligning the media choices to where your consumer will be most likely to engage with your brand message. We look at all the types of Media through the lens of the Brand Leader, with advice on how to use traditional media options, such as TV, radio, newspaper, out-of-home and Modern media options such as digital, social and search.

Winning the Purchase Moment:We provide brand leaders with analytics, planning and decision making tools to help their instincts and judgement for moving consumers to purchase. Complete in-store business review, looking at categories, consumer shopping behavior, competitors, customers and the overall brand performance. We teach the basics of customer marketing planning, identifying the target consumer, in-store messages, strategies, tactics and project management. We look at the available tools for customer marketing including pricing, promotions, retail shelf management, merchandising and operational execution.